Blood Meridian - still utterly and completely off topic

Daniel D Jones · 05 Oct 2006, 00:11 · from 2006-October.txt.gz

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From: ddjones at riddlemaster.org (Daniel D Jones)
Date: Wed, 4 Oct 2006 20:11:58 -0400
Subject: (urth) Blood Meridian - still utterly and completely off topic
In-Reply-To: <2604BCE1171C434C912C75ED42F419F0012CB98E at dragonfly.middlebury.edu>
References: <20061001143239.7908.qmail at web32405.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
	<2604BCE1171C434C912C75ED42F419F0012CB98E at dragonfly.middlebury.edu>
Message-ID: <200610042011.59138.ddjones at riddlemaster.org>

On Wednesday 04 October 2006 12:29, Alexander, Bryan wrote:
> Why not horror... because it's a historical novel, an antiwestern,
> primarily.  The kid travels right from the old frontier through to
> California, and the novel touches on all sorts of western tropes along the
> way: naturalism, the imposition of law, the cult of the outlaw, Mexico,
> etc. It is horrific, I'll grant you that.  It felt like a very violent
> novel from the start.
>
> "regeneration through violence" is Richard Slotkin's classic formula about
> American frontier lit.  Heroes head out, confront horror, are redeemed by
> their violent response. What's weird is that _Blood Meridian_ isn't
> redemptive at all.  Had the blurber actually finished it?  No spoiler here,
> but cf the conclusion of Melville's _Confidence-Man_.

You don't think that the kid was redeemed by his experiences?  What does the 
Judge mean when he tells the kid he failed him?  Why do they part ways as 
they do?  Why does the book end as it does?

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